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That's Brits for you: Always sounding like they know more than your average Yank. "They SOUND like they do, and that's the trick," Oliver agrees with a laugh. "But there is nothing more British than simultaneously feeling superior and inferior. You just project one, repress the other." Still, the record shows that Oliver attended highbrow Cambridge University. Just how smart IS Oliver? "Smart enough to appear smarter than I am," he reasons. "I was smart enough to get into Cambridge, and I guess I was smart enough to realize that I wasn't as clever as everyone else when I got there. I felt kind of out of place there, and spent most of my time doing comedy rather than academics." Notably, he became part of the Cambridge Footlights comedy troupe, whose luminous alumni include Sasha Baron Cohen, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese and David Frost. "That was where I learnt, through failure, to do comedy, which, initially, is re-LENT-less failure," he says rhapsodically
-- "un-re-MIT-ting failure!" But that was followed by successful standup gigs and TV appearances across his homeland. Then Stewart discovered him and brought him to these shores. "From the day I came to 'The Daily Show' I couldn't imagine not being here," says Oliver. "I really love this job! I can't fathom a time that I won't be working here." And for the next few weeks he is filling in for the man who not only is his boss, but, to hear him talk, a bona fide mentor. "You KNOW Jon Stewart is funny," Oliver says. "What you DON'T see is, he's a pretty incredible manager of production as well. He's spent over 10 years making sure this show operates in a certain way. The key thing is to really keep your foot on the throat of this show so that it doesn't just get up and walk away." He laughs appreciatively. "That's the biggest lesson he's taught me." Starting Monday, John Oliver is putting his foot down, and keeping it funny.
[Associated
Press;
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